On Thursday, September 19^th, 2019, the Toronto Police Service Board (TPSB) approved the collection of race-based data. The change will take effect in 2020 and will initially only require the recording of race in interactions that involve the use of force or display of force, like the pulling of a gun. After this “trial run”, the Board will extend the policy to stops, searches, and arrests.

“It’s a very historic moment,” Renu Mandhane, Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), stated after the TPSB approved the new policy. She added that, “This recommendation was made 40 years ago in a report on police violence against the black community, and the community has been waiting 40 years for the board to put forward a policy like this.” 

Mandhane also stated that the policy would initially be based on a police officer’s perception of an individual’s race, as this is important in uncovering biases within the police force. Later, TPSB will introduce self-reporting from people involved in police encounters.

In a time of historic policy changes, it is important to consider the potential benefits and drawbacks to the collection of ethno-racial data. 

Access to such data could be used to identify racial and ethnic bias within the Toronto Police Service. The new policy followed the recommendations of the 2018 OHRC interim report on race and policing, which found that a black person in Toronto was nearly 20 times more likely than a white person to be shot and killed by police. “Black people made up approximately 30% of police use-of-force cases that resulted in serious injury or death, 60% of deadly encounters with Toronto Police, and 70% of fatal police shootings.” Such information is provided by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which investigates police interactions that involve serious injury, death, or allegations of sexual assault. The numbers in the 2018 OHCR report were drawn from 187 cases handled by the SIU. While this data is extremely telling, the SIU is limited to extreme cases of violence and does not report on the disproportionate rates at which Black individuals and other people of colour are involved with more minor uses or threats of force, which race-based data would collect. 

The TPSB’s initial draft of the policy stated that, “The Board views this Policy as vital to improving transparency and accountability in how police services are delivered—necessary ingredients for community trust and engagement between Members of the Service and the City’s communities, as well as positive morale in the delivery of police services.” By banning access to race-based data, distrust of police increases in communities, especially from those who are repeatedly over-policed. Canada does not ban the access of race-based data from other countries, so why does it hide its own?

A common argument against the release of race-based data is that it will increase racial discrimination within Canada. However, the restriction of data has done nothing to prevent that very problem. If anything, Canadians tend to overestimate racial involvement in violent crime, as well as the size of minority populations in Canada. A ban on data does not prevent discrimination. Rather, the release of such information could educate the public on discriminatory practices of the Toronto Police Service and help combat ignorance. 

Although it is important to acknowledge the benefits to the collection of race-based data, it is equally important to focus on the potentially deleterious effects of this policy. As the first police force in Canada to implement race-based data collection, it is imperative that it is done well. As Paul Bailey, an urban planner and community advocate from Toronto’s Rexdale community, told CBC, “Everyone’s going to be following their lead.” 

Scot Wortley, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, has researched the impacts of race-based data. When interviewed by CBC, he expressed his concern over whether officers would  face formal discipline for misreporting race-related data, and what systems are in place to prevent such behavior. A lack of accountability could limit the legitimacy of the data and its usefulness in reducing racism. Wortley expressed his concern over the development of race-based data collection in other provinces. He worries “that it seems individual police services have to come up and develop their own policy.” Rather than allowing police departments to have complete agency of their individual programs, he argues that it would be more effective to create one standard system of collecting data across all provinces and territories to allow for the comparison of national data. 

Notisha Massaquoi, co-chair of the Anti-Racism Advisory Panel that developed the race-based data policy, described it as “a first step.” She told CBC, “it is only meant to start addressing systemic racism, systemic bias, and to start the elimination of anti-Black racism.” 

If implemented properly, Toronto’s policy could spark a national change in the collection of race-based data. It will be a short wait until January 2020 to see the effects of a long overdue change in the Toronto Police Service.